other countries as well. thank you for joining us. brianna keilar starts right now. have a great afternoon. i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. underway right now, a white house on edge preparing for the mueller report. find out what to look for when it's released. and the president taking his politicization of the military to a whole new level, saying the military is on his side as he insults a war hero. plus, would revealing a running mate on day one make a splash or box you in? and as the white house defies democrats and investigations of the president, see who is cooperating from the trump orbit. we begin with this just in to cnn, some senior white house

officials facing questions about their alleged use of permanent e-mail to conduct government business at the white house. senior congressional correspondent manu raju is on the hill. manu, what can you tell us about this? >> elijah cummings sent a new letter to the white house moments ago saying they have obtained new information saying several white house officials have been using e-mail personal messaging applications to conduct official government business. now, in this letter, cummings does single out individuals and say that they have had meetings to essentially confirm their suspicions and public reporting saying there has been use of public, personal e-mails and personal devices to conduct this official business. one of the questions that's being raised by elijah cummings is whether or not the white house officials are violating

the presidential records acts by not conducting their official business through official counts and also by not forwarding some of these messages that were being done, some of these personal messages that came to their personal accounts to their official accounts. cummings raises the position that this is a violation of federal law. in 2015, hillary clinton faced significant questions from the white house and from president trump about using her personal e-mail to conduct government business while serving as secretary of state, and for months there have been questions whether or not senior officials have done just that. so elijah cummings started this investigation several months ago, but when he became chairman of the oversight committee, he renewed this investigation, renewed this request, and he says new information has come to

light making it very clear that some evsenior officials have us the application to conduct business with foreign leaders as well. he said he wants answers from the white house. we have reached out to the white house. they said they just received the letter. they are reviewing it. we'll see what they have to say, but this is going to be part of the investigation going forward, particularly on this committee. we'll see what the white house has to say if they do respond to these questions, brianna. >> manu raju on capitol hill, thank you for that. we do have more breaking news. president trump announcing a significant move involving israel. he tweeted just moments ago, quote, after 52 years, it is time for the united states to fully recognize israel's sovereignty over the golan heights, which is a critical, strategic and security importance to the state of israel and regional stability. let's go live now to michelle kosinski. she is at the state department following this. tell us why this is so significant, especially ahead of

this visit. >> this is not an internally recognized sovereignty over the golan heights. in fact, just the opposite. israel seized this land from syria in the war in 1967. it's been seen by the united states for years as occupation. and in documents and in policy statements, the u.s. would recognize that. so we started to see indications that this could change in a number of ways. recently for the first time, the u.s. voted against a u.n. resolution condemning israel's occupation of these lands. so we saw the opposition to it there, and then just days ago, in a state department report on human rights, for the first time instead of calling it occupied, the u.s. called this land israeli controlled. so we've been asking the state department ever since then what does this mean exactly? and the state department has played pretty coy with it.

it's as if they didn't want to draw attention to it, and when asked, they wouldn't give any detail on it. just today secretary of state pompeo who is traveling in israel, today he's in jerusalem, he was asked by reporters repeatedly, what does this mean for u.s. policy? can you tell us what the u.s. policy is? he refused to answer. and now we see this massive change by the president via tweet, brianna. >> not unusual but still significant. michellely kro sin ski at the state department, thank you. i want to bring in white house chief of staff leon panetta who is with us from monterey, california. this is it, the president recognizing the golan heights. what is your reaction to this? >> it raises a lot of concern because he's tweeting out

another policy that obviously has not been worked out with our international partners, has not been worked through the united nations in any way. and frankly gives up one of the chips that everyone thought would be part of a middle east peace agreement deal. and the problem is that it's going to create real problems with our arab partners in that part of the world. it isn't that israel doesn't control the golan heights, they do. the real question is whether or not recognizing that the golan heights are now part of israel can be accomplished without working with our internal partners and international law. >> do you see a role here when it comes to the election bid of benjamin netanyahu? >> it's hard not to put two and two together. the president has made clear his support for netanyahu. netanyahu asked that this be

done a few days ago, so two and two equals four, and i think there is no question that this is part of president trump's support for netanyahu in that election. >> i do want to talk now about this washington waiting game we're in right now. the white house is on edge over the pending release of special counsel robert mueller's report. mueller's investigation of russia interference in the 2016 presidential election has been like this cloud just hovering over the first two years of the trump administration, and the signs suggest that the investigati

investigational investigation is on. what is the plan for handling the report and determining who gets to see what? >> the handling of the mueller report is going to depend largely on what's in it. obviously if the information inside is damaging to president trump, there will be an incentive by the white house to prevent disclosure of some of it, and if the white house is exculpatory, there will be an incentive to try to make that information public. the white house is trying to see how to respond to this given the different ways it could play out. they have been holding meetings with officials based on different ways to respond based on a number of different scenarios. and what's going to happen to. barr will decide what to pass on to congress, so sources tell cnn that the white house expects to have opportunities to exercise executive privilege there.

at the white house there are impending questions about the mueller probe. you do have anxiety among airde, because like the rest of us, they're in the dark about the mueller report, but you also have a sense of relief that this two-year-old cloud may be coming to an end. as the white house and the entire country is awaiting robert mueller's final report, there are major questions that are still looming. we have cnn's senior justice correspondent evan perez here to walk us through three of the big things we should be looking for. >> right, there is a lot of anticipation, obviously, for this report. it's 373 days, by the way, since robert mueller was appointed as a special counsel. the three big questions, i think, are these.

if this investigation closes in the next couple of days, it's clear that the president has not sat down for an interview. the question is, did robert mueller ask the justice department for permission to subpoena the president. we know the president's team refused to have him sit down. the question is, did the -- of course, how was that resolved? was there a question in everybody's mind, whatever happened to russian collusion, whatever happened to the question of obstruction of justice? did robert mueller find any sign of russian collusion, and if so, why didn't he charge it? so far in any documents they

brought -- working with the russians to throwing a 20 19 investigation. bill maher has to go through this and decide what he can cut out and tell members of congress about the findings of robert mueller. so the big question has been, how detailed is this report going to be? is it going to provide information about people who did not get charged? for example, what jim comey did with hillary clinton, where he said, well, it didn't reach to the level of a crime, but there a are. so is that something that. certainly what bill barr is going to have to handle is exactly those questions. >> could there be more charges, or is there a sense that phase

is over? >> i think there should or nearing the. the big moment for this president is that the cloud is going to be lifted, after 373 days and counting, and he'll be able to declare victory, really, over the fact there is no collusion, as he says. >> all right. evan perez, now the latest attack on senator john mccain. the president complained he didn't get a thank you for helping arrange mccain's funeral. >> there is a mean streak that

runs through donald trump's heart that i don't think people can underestimate. and he does get a great deal of satisfaction out of that. so while i'm not a diagnostician, either, for mental health orders, there is a piece of this that is almost sociopa sociopathic, that he likes to hurt people. you don't have to be a professional to see these traits come out in it. >> back now with former chief of staff leon panetta. president trump has been going after john mccain now for his military service, he's gone after him for his academic record, his remembers.

>> i think it's pretty disgusting when the president of the united states decides to attack someone who is regarded as an american patriot and war hero seven months after he died. the fact is that a president obviously is gnawing trying to hit back at mccain for some reason, it's been something inside of him. he has not been able to control it, and now he comes out and attacks john mccain in this way when john mccain obviously ca t can't. i know john mccain, i worked with john mccain. he was a dedicated public servant. but if john mccain p.

he went after him seven months after he died. >> i wonder about the broader implications with. >> but the president has routinely gone after other people in the military, associated with the military, even remember he has recently criticized the military. he was in iraq and held a campaign-style rally where you had young soldiers who were kind of co-opted into roles they should not have been even if they personally support the president politically. some h-- when you look at the military implications, what are your concerns? >> i think the president is on dangerous ground.

the constitution requires that he honor our military. our military is part of our national security, and the president's responsibility is to use our military when it comes to national security, not when it comes to his personal politics. so the use of the military, whether it was on the border, whether it's on these political rallies, whether it's saying that somehow the military is behind him when it comes to attacking john mccain, all of these things are dangerous comments that imply that somehow the military belongs to the president of the united states. it doesn't. the military belongs to the country and to our national security. and the president would do well to avoid crossing that line. >> americans, largely, when they

look at the military as far as government institutions go, very high rating. they don't really see the military through a political lens. what happens if that starts to change? what happens if americans start seeing the military through a political lens? >> that's the last thing you want to happen? >> regardless of what they want the politics to be, the men and women in uniform that i've worked with, they are kmichltd. >> they're committed to doing their job to protect their country, and that's what getting

the military to take political sides is going to undermine their ability to do the job of protecting our national security. because then people will question the motivations behind any kind of military deployment. so it is critical here for the president to back off of trying to use the military as a political tool now and during the campaign. >> retired admiral mike mullen, former chairman of the joint chiefs who you worked with when you were cia director. he's been very careful not to criticize president trump, he doesn't think general brash should, but he's been very forward on the military. he's been to a lot of countries where the military was politicized, and he says, you would not want to live in any of

them. do you think he knows that when he behaves like this? >> i think mike mullen is right. if you look at other countries many. >> it undermines the credibility of the military, and that military is used not just to protect national security but to implement the goals of that particular dictator or leader that controls the military. that's the danger. and that's why under our democracy, under our constitution, it's very clear that while the president may be commander in chief that the m l

responsibility of the country is defending the country. that's how we became the most popular nation on earth is because we recognized those lines. if this president muddies those lines, it will endanger credibility of the u.s. military. >> thank you for coming. nice seeing you. >> thank you, brianna. would joe biden announce a running mate on day one to make a splash? the justice department issues subpoenas in criminal probe of boeing 737 max jets. and president trump says the u.s. will recognize israeli s r sovereignty over the golan heights. a little cooler in her? [ a-class ] i am setting the temperature

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democratic hopeful john hickenlooper playing damage control today. he was asked if he became the nominee, would he consider rounding out his ticket with a woman vice president? >> governor, some of your male competitors have vowed to put a woman on the ticket. yes or no, would you do the same? >> i think -- of course. i'll ask another question. >> you're not asking the questions. >> i know. i know. but how come we're not asking more often the women, why you be willing to put a man on the ticket? >> when we get to that point, i'll ask you that question. >> hickenlooper is fighting back against critics and arguing that not asking the same question to all women who are running inherently discounts their chances of winning in 2020. we have cnn political commentator joe trippy here with

us now. he was the campaign manager for howard dean's presidential run. i wonder what you think about hickenlooper's cleanup. is it good? >> a better one would have been it will be really good when we have a woman asked if she'll have another woman on the ticket with her? wouldn't that be a great day for america. i think he's overthinking things, and you've seen this a couple times with him where he kind of starts trying to think three or four steps ahead of the game and makes a mistake. but all the candidates are going to make these kinds of mistakes, and then we're going to, early on, they're going to run into turbulence and we're all going to talk about it. but in the end it's the ones that make these mistakes, learn from them, get back up and keep going. it's a marathon of gauntlet. >> there is a lot of talk right now about joe biden. people are watching him. there are reports that he is close to, obviously, announcing and that he is also considering announcing a running mate when he announces his candidacy and that stacey abrams is actually

the top contender? would that be wise? >> i don't expect him to do that. i would be surprised if he does that. i don't think it hurts to have the speculation out there -- >> why is it good to have people talking about it but not actually doing it? >> it helps stacey abrams. she's a rising star in the party talked about for a possible senator run or gubernatorial run in georgia. she's talked about running for president, potentially. it doesn't hurt her to have the speculation, and it doesn't hurt joe biden to have us all talking about will he do this, pick a younger and more diversity on the ticket kind of speculation doesn't hurt. i think, though, in the end you get what obama was looking for when he picked joe biden as vice president, and you look for somebody who can fill the role of president, who is qualified. joe biden was on the senate

chair of the senate foreign relations committee. now, he may be looking at, i got that. i want somebody who will help on domestic, really looking at what's going on in our states and cities and locally. that could be a reason for talking about this, but i think in the end, you've got to vet your vice presidential nominee. iver be i've been on a vice presidential selection team looking at this. there are tax records, all kinds of things. it's tougher to be picked as vice president than it is to be president of the united states. had donald trump been trying to become vice president on somebody's ticket, that presidential nominee would have asked him for his tax returns. if he didn't turn them over, he wouldn't have been on the ticket. so it's actually a tough thing, and the team is going to want to vet this, the candidate joe biden is going to want to vet this. i don't know if this sort of puts some testing in the waters or what, but i really doubt that

this will happen. >> too soon to talk about this? you would box yourself in, obviously. >> i actually expect biden, if he gets in, to pick a vice president early. i think that might happen before the convention. but i think on the announcement day, i would be a little surprised. >> joe trippi, thank you so much for being in the studio today. they're alleging senior white house officials have used their personal e-mail to conduct government business. the investigation is now underway on that. plus, new zealand is taking drastic action on gun laws less than a week after a shooter's rampage killed 50 people. but will it inspire change in the u.s. as well? and democratic congressman dan kilge who has fought for stronger gun laws will join me on that next. with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast...

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that protects what's important. it handles everything, and reaches everywhere. this is beyond wifi, this is xfi. simple. easy. awesome. xfinity, the future of awesome. only six days after the mosque attacks in christchurch, the new zealand prime minister announced radical changes to the gun laws. >> we will ban all military semiautomatic style rifles. we will also ban all assault rifles. we will ban all high-capacity magazines.

we will ban all with the ability to convert semiautomatic or any other type of firearm into a military style semiautomatic weapon. >> the prime minister's proposed changes in gun laws are in stark contrast to the u.s. in the last six years you can see the amount of mass shootings where an ar-15 was used. we have democratic congressman dan kilde. he's on the ways and means committee. he joins us now. you co-sponsored a bill that would close some loopholes by requiring all gun background laws. what is the strategy with this bill? >> i think the strategy has to be that the american people step up and raise their voices. public opinion is with us, but as we know, the intensity of opinion very often is not equal. people who are strong supporters of the second amendment, as am i, but oppose these measures are

often the loudest voices in the debate. so we need more people to speak up because the american people would be with us. when we see new zealand act six days after the terrible shooting, we have to remind ourselves that it's been more than six years since that terrible day in newtown, and we still really have not taken any significant steps to prevent the next tragedy from taking place. >> you say it's really up to voters, because when you have gun right supporters who are voting and that is the issue that is driving them, you're not really having that on the other side, but you will hear as a democratic congressman criticism from some of your constituents, from democratic voters in general who feel like it's congress that is being really inactive here, that they're in the pocket of the nra. that's what some voters will say. what do you say to that when you have voters saying that it's

congress that isn't acting? you're saying it's the voters that need to step up. >> there is a necessary connection. congress is a reflection of the people that we represent, especially the house. it's the people's house. so our willingness as a body -- many of us individually are completely willing to go down this path. but our willingness as a body to take on these issues is, i think, a direct reflection of what we hear from our constituents. the sad thing is -- >> i want to bring up a poll number so you can help us make sense of this. the pugh research center found last fall that those similar to gun laws in new zealand are high in support. 67% supported banning high capacity magazines or assault-style weapons. congress reflects the voters, but congress doesn't reflect that poll. so square that. >> right. the fact is that in our

participatory dmoemocracy, it's the voices that speak up on public policy. the fact that so many people who may feel that we should take strong action on gun safety keep it to themselves and don't speak up. they don't see that issue as an issue that moves them to act. or very often those citizens are afraid of engaging on the issue because they know they're going to be criticized, they know there is going to be such a harsh reaction from those who oppose common sense gun protections like the nra. so what i say is, encourage people to use their voices. it will make a difference. the sad reality is that those who really do struggle and fight hard for commonsense gun safety laws are often the ones who are close to the victims, and i hate to think that we're going to have to come to a time when so many people are affected by this

terrible -- repeated instances of terrible mass shootings that it's going to take so many more people to be affected before we finally get around to doing something right. in new zealand, it took one instance. six days later they took decisive action. we should take some sort of a lesson from that. >> while i have you here, i want to ask you, because the mueller investigation does appear to be in its end here. the president has said he would be happy for americans to see the final report. do you take him at his word? >> i don't take much of what the president says very seriously, because he changes his mind. let's face it, i used to be careful about this. i'm not so careful. the president lies a lot. so he's saying what i think he needs to say or he feels like he needs to say to win the moment. when the moment comes, he could have a completely different point of view. i do think, though, the public has a right to know. when this -- because this

investigation obviously has garnered a lot of attention. i believe the public has an absolute right to know the result of it, and it's my hope that it will be -- unless there is some very important details that have to be protected for good reason, i think it has to be made public. >> congressman, thanks for being with us. congressman dan kildee, we appreciate it. >> thanks, brianna. coming off the fbi joining a critical investigation into boeing after two of their max jets crash within months. what are they looking for here? and patriots owner robert kraft is looking to keep his accusation of prostitution scandal quiet and trump really wants kraft to visit the white house.

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the justice department is ramping up its criminal investigation of boeing. sources telling cnn that prosecutors have issued multiple subpoenas of boeing's faa certification and marketing of 737 max jets. this is the model involved in two deadly crashes just five months apart in ethiopia and indonesia. we have cnn correspondent jessica schneider here with the details. what are the investigators looking for here? >> this has now become a federal criminal probe which in and of itself is a big deal. these federal investigators have issued subpoenas. they want to know about boeing's safety procedures, including the pilot manuals, the training manuals, but more importantly, perhaps, they want to look into

this whole certification process. and boeing, as part of its own safety procedures, it reports its certification process directly to the faa. it's really part of its self-certification procedure, which is completely legal. it's done all the time. but it's now raising some questions, and it may be raising questions in the criminal realm here to see what kind of statements boeing made to the faa when it related to its certification process. so that could potentially be a big question for investigators. but really, overall, brianna, just the fact that this is now a criminal probe, that is in itself quite ominous. because most of these aviation issues, they're usually considered at the administrative level. in this case that's happening as well. that's because the department of transportation's inspector general is also conducting an audit of this certification process, but now these federal investigators in the criminal realm have entered as well. >> so interesting. what is boeing saying about all of this? >> boeing is not saying anything. they're staying very quiet about

this and they're doing that because they're saying they're not commenting on any legal matters, any litigation, any government inquiries. but what they are doing, and this could come up in the next few weeks, they're working on a few fixes here. they've instituted a software patch they'll be rolling out and they're also putting out new pilot training. the problem with that is they started with these fixes after the first crash, the lion air crash back in october. so it's possible that any fixes they put forward might not exactly cure all the problems if other issues are detected in the investigation with the ethiopian airlines crash that happened just about a week and a half ago. so it's possible that boeing's fixes might not be fix enough, really. >> and those planes are on the ground, still. >> exactly. they could be grounded for a while. >> jessica schneider, thank you for that report. coming up, president trump takes his feud with john mccain to a new level by taking credit for a veterans bill that's named after the late senator. we'll get a fact check for that.

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>>. >> not only is president trump feuding with an american war hero who's not even alive to return the fire, he's also taking credit for senator john mccain's role in a bill to help veterans. listen to what the president said during a speech at a tank factory in ohio. >> mccain didn't get the job done for our great vets and the

v.a. and they knew it. that's why when i had my dispute with him, i had such incredible support from the vets and from the military. the vets were on my side because i got the job done. i got choice. >> no, actually, no, none of that is true. here are the facts. senator mccain played a leading role in the veterans choice bill. it was initially signed into law in 2014 by president obama giving veterans more freedom to seek medical care outside of the v.a. system. in 2018 president trump signed an expansion of the bill that mccain spearheaded and president obama made law. that's why it's called the john s. mccain the third and samuel r. johnson v.a. maintaining internal systems and strengthening integrated outside networks act of 2018 and the president should know that because he signed it. now few republicans at this point have spoken out about president trump's attacks of john mccain but former ohio governor john kasich tweeted

this, enough donald trump, enough. john mccain was an inspirational public service and sacrificed so much for our country and the former governor is also a cnn senior political commentator with us today. when you look at this and you're outspoken, but why are so few of your fellow republicans taking the same approach? >> careerism over leadership, you know. i'm in office, i want to stay in office, i kind of like it. i'm a united states senator. i'm like a flamingo. i get to flap around and be important and sometimes you can be addicted to a job like that. when you think about the fundamentals of our country, george washington said two terms, right? these folks, they get in there and want to be in there forever. i think their problem is, they don't want to get heat from the base. they don't want to have a face a primary. i understand it. it's tough to do that, but the we is why are you there? are you there just to be in office? are you there because you're building a career there or would you want to be a leader and you

can move in, move out, go do something else, go back in, it's what i did. i was in the congress for 18 years, sat out for almost ten before i went back to becoming governor and now i'm not again and it's really great to breathe this air, but a lot of them, you know, their very concerned about their future. >> aside from leaving congress if they upset someone with saying that, do you think they could take a stand for john mccain's service and survive politically? >> if i were in the tank plant and he had said those things, i would have walked out, okay? you probably never would have got to that tank plant because i didn't go to the convention. i'm a sitting governor and we have a convention in ohio and i didn't go to the convention. i got a lot of heat. i got a lot of republicans that don't like me. you know what? i wish they liked me but the fact that they don't like me, i don't care, because i've got something bigger at stake which is to -- we're all failures, all of us are flawed, okay, but every day you just try to do

something to make things a little bit better and to excuse this kind of behavior, to me it's -- it's on them, but it's also on donald trump, what's he trying to do? he said the veterans love him. that bill was named after sam johnson. sam johnson was in the congress and he was a p.o.w. if you meet him, he's got an arm that doesn't function very well. john mccain couldn't even raise his arms. i knew john since 1982. we went into congress together. we loved him. we admired him and he was a dear friend of mine and he always showed courage. that was the thing about mccain. he is the standard for the way we need to think about the fact that do the right thing and over time it'll work. >> former chief-of-staff for the rnc says that president trump is doing exactly what his supporters want and what they expect -- >> i don't agree with that -- >> can you -- okay. we're going to listen to what he says and then we're going to talk. let's roll this. >> the question of what's

presidential i think is actually more of what i'm kind of getting at here because the image that many of us may have of what's presidential, he ran against, his supporters don't like that. being presidential and being, you know, sort of hope and change type of pc president had us the slowest recovery in modern history. they don't want a politician who's pc, they want someone who tells it like it is and owe depends people. his supports like it that we'll be offended. we're the people we want to see offended. that's the whole purpose is to offend us. >> governor? >> the culture of our country if it becomes about offending one another then we're in a deep slide. that isn't what people want. i mean they may wanted a change here, but if you talk to people, even the strongest trump supporters, we don't like the tweets and we don't like that but look at the economy. so they don't agree with that. there aren't people out there that say isn't it great that he's attacking a war hero who's

dead? i don't know anybody who says that but they might excuse it -- >> governor, they do. if you -- if you -- i would be curious to see what people will say about you for defending john mccain. you will get -- anyone who has talks about the vitriol that they receive. >> part of it is being a leader, of course, when you take a stand, people are going to attack you. there's two things i said last night on cnn. there are two types of people in politics, there are leaders and there are pleasers. if you are a pleaser, you will lose in the long run. if you are a leader, you will take heat in the short run but you'll be respected in the long run. so the fact that is, in my state of ohio, people are not into rude and personal attacks. i don't care what the polls -- look, i was the governor there. i won 86 out of 88 counties. i know the people. they don't like that, but they're willing to forgive it. what i say to them is, don't you think values matter and decency matter, don't you think manners

matter because you teach your kids that? that's the way it ought to be and -- i've said all i need to say about donald trump in regard to this issue. i've tweeted, i've said, you know -- appeared on television. it's time for all of us to move on and remember what our mothers and fathers taught us, which is to be kind to somebody else, put ourselves in their shoes, that's how we become a stronger country. >> do you think people are receptive to that? >> absolutely, they are. i know. i travel around the country. i don't have any security. people come up to me in airports and in restaurants. it's anecdotal. i don't have anybody come up to me and yell at me, maybe once in a while, i find it amusing. i wish they liked me. i wish that i could have them, but i'm not going to go and sacrifice anything for the cheers. today they cheer you, tomorrow they boo you. what i've learned is, especially as governor, sometimes they boo you early, they cheer you later, and then they miss you once you're gone. >> john kasich, thank you so

much. >> thank you. >> and that is it for me. "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right now. you are watching cnn on this thursday afternoon. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. it has been looming over the trump presidency even before the man took office. now the russia investigation may be coming to an end. we don't know when, we don't know what it'll say but we do know this that the white house and president trump are bracing for this probe to be over, for the mueller report to be complete and for its findings to be released. the president now says he wants the public to see the report by the special counsel, even though he has called the probe a witch-hunt many, many times. just last week he tweeted, quote the special counsel should never have been appointed and there should be no mueller report. let's start with o